Evolutionary Religion

J. L. Schellenberg

Argues that traditional religion is not sustainable in the light of evolution

Clear and lively, written for anyone interested in original ideas about religion

No expertise in philosophy or science required

Evolutionary Religion

J. L. Schellenberg

Description

J. L. Schellenberg articulates and defends a simple but revolutionary idea: we are still at a very early stage in the possible history of intelligent life on our planet, and should frame our religious attitudes accordingly. Humans have begun to adapt to a deep past--one measured in billions of years, not thousands. But we have not really noticed how thin is the sliver of past time in which all of our religious life is contained. And the eons that may yet see intelligent life have hardly started to come into focus. When these things are internalized, our whole picture of religion may change. For then we will for the first time be in a position to ask: Might there be a form of religion appropriate to such an early stage of development as our own? Might such 'evolutionary religion' be rather different from the forms of religion we see all around us today? And might it be better fitted to meet the demands of reason? Though most concerned simply to get a new discussion going, Evolutionary Religion maintains that the answer is in each case 'yes'. When the light of deep time has fully been switched on, a new form of skepticism but, at the same time, new possibilities of religious life will come into view. We will find ourselves drawn to religious attitudes that, while not foregoing the idea of a transcendent ultimate, manage to do without believing and without details. As Schellenberg reveals, pursuing evolutionary religion instead of embracing a scientific naturalism is something that can rationally be done, even if traditional religious belief is placed out of bounds by argument. And ironically it is science that should help us see this. Indeed, in a new cultural dispensation evolutionary religion may come to be a preferred option among those most concerned for our intellectual enrichment and for our survival into the deep future.

Evolutionary Religion

J. L. Schellenberg

Table of Contents

Prologue: Deep Time Religion1. Half a Revolution2. First Among Unequals?3. Evolutionary Skepticism4. The New Pessimism5. The New Optimism6. Imagination is Key7. The "Chief Objections"8. Religion for PioneersEpilogue: Darwin's Door and Hegel's Hinge

Evolutionary Religion

J. L. Schellenberg

Author Information

J. L. Schellenberg (DPhil, Oxford) is Professor of Philosophy at Mount Saint Vincent University and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie University. He is the author of the seminal Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason (Cornell University Press, 1993), which introduced the now well-known hiddenness argument for atheism, and of an acclaimed trilogy on the philosophy of religion: Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion, The Wisdom to Doubt: A Justification of Religious Skepticism, and The Will to Imagine: A Justification of Skeptical Religion (Cornell University Press, 2005; 2007; 2009). In 2013, the journal Religious Studies published a special issue dedicated to Schellenberg's philosophy of religion.

Evolutionary Religion

J. L. Schellenberg

Reviews and Awards

"Schellenberg is successful in making the reader appreciate what the deep future may hold and he challenges both science and traditional religion in a way that builds off both the skepticism of the former and the openness of the latter. Schellenberg s very readable and imaginative book deserves careful study, particularly by graduate students and advanced undergraduates who have an interest in the intersection of evolution and religion."--Religious Studies Review

Evolutionary Religion

J. L. Schellenberg

From Our Blog

John Schellenberg On the last page of 'On The Origin of Species', Charles Darwin turns from millions of years of natural selection in the past to what he calls a 'future of equally inappreciable length' and ventures the judgment that 'all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress to perfection.'